Sunday Funday

My old roommate and I used to get the Sunday night blues. She’d be working on group projects or case studies for MBA classes and I would be cobbling together lesson plans, usually by reading through math blogs (Dan Meyer, Sam Shah, and Kate Nowak were my gateways to this fascination world of curriculum). We were constantly starting the work week already tired, growing even more tired as we looked forward to the weekend, then never fully resting on the weekends.

I used to think I needed to work constantly to be the best teacher I could be, never taking the advice I so freely doled out to my students about getting enough sleep to be fully focused in class. I stayed up too late, slept too little, and inhaled too much coffee to make up for the sleep deficit. To me, teaching life and social life were mutually exclusive. I rarely hung out with friends on weeknights, and on the occasions that I did, I often worried about what I *should* be doing for school instead of fully enjoying social time.

I have gotten much better with getting most of my work done before I leave school and with giving my full attention to social time. I am also adjusting my schedule so it works best for me. For example, I now go running earlier in the day rather than waiting to run at 7pm with girlfriends, because exercising too late at night makes it difficult to fall asleep on school nights. Additionally, I sometimes go to afternoon yoga or pilates classes and then do work rather than going with the rush-hour crowds. However, when the school year starts, I’m going to miss the freedom of being able to hang out with friends in an impromptu way during summer evenings. Most of all, I’ll miss the feeling of not worrying about work during the evenings. In spite of changing routines, this Sunday night blues feeling is hard to shake.

Today, my boyfriend and I played Settlers of Katan with some friends. We got the invitation when we were walking home after working at iYo Cafe, and I thought “I’m too tired and I should really work on my lesson plans some more.” After a short yoga session and dinner, we decided to go because we’d feel happier hanging out with our friends rather than putting in a few more half-hearted hours on our work. Lo and behold, we were right–chatting, socializing, and exercising our brains with Settlers was way more productive.I’d love to continue these Sunday Fundays throughout the school year. In order to do so, I’ll have to get everything done and planned out before Sunday afternoon…difficult, but well worth it in terms of fighting the Sunday night blues!